If he was supposed to be Orban’s successor, they wouldn’t have had him start a new party or run a heavily pro-EU campaign. That makes no sense. You’d just have Orban step down and have the new guy take over in the next election cycle. Keeps momentum for the main party and all the installed cronies, no expectation of change from the population, no need to stir the hive. If Magyar backtracks on his promises now, you’ll end up with a lot of unrest among the people, exactly what you want to avoid when planning your succession.
Magyar’s been communicating very effectively with the people for years. Opposition rallying behind the best chance at unseating an autocrat who threatens to establish indefinite single-party rule only makes sense.
That’s why it’s called planned opposition. If you’re afraid of losing control to a genuine opposition movement, you set up a fake opposition movement that dramatically opposes you on a few big ticket items and generally agrees with you on the rest - or that dramatically opposes you on everything, but has no intention of keeping its promises.
Look, I’d like to be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But I expect Magyar is going to make some dramatic economic moves that don’t actually change the economy, run some corruption show trials, crack down on political participation outside the two major parties, back down on his pro-EU stances, and quietly take his orders from Orban and Putin behind the scenes.
If he was supposed to be Orban’s successor, they wouldn’t have had him start a new party or run a heavily pro-EU campaign. That makes no sense. You’d just have Orban step down and have the new guy take over in the next election cycle. Keeps momentum for the main party and all the installed cronies, no expectation of change from the population, no need to stir the hive. If Magyar backtracks on his promises now, you’ll end up with a lot of unrest among the people, exactly what you want to avoid when planning your succession.
Magyar’s been communicating very effectively with the people for years. Opposition rallying behind the best chance at unseating an autocrat who threatens to establish indefinite single-party rule only makes sense.
That’s why it’s called planned opposition. If you’re afraid of losing control to a genuine opposition movement, you set up a fake opposition movement that dramatically opposes you on a few big ticket items and generally agrees with you on the rest - or that dramatically opposes you on everything, but has no intention of keeping its promises.
Look, I’d like to be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But I expect Magyar is going to make some dramatic economic moves that don’t actually change the economy, run some corruption show trials, crack down on political participation outside the two major parties, back down on his pro-EU stances, and quietly take his orders from Orban and Putin behind the scenes.